Mobile agent-based service provision in intelligent networks

The emerging information society requires a powerful information infrastructure, which could realize the vision of an "electronic" market of services, where information services and telecommunication services will be offered in competition by different service providers. The rapid and customized provision of services represents the prerequisite for the realization of a dynamic market place, For today's progressively deregulated telecommunications services market, the Intelligent Network(IN) represents the technological basis for the rapid provision of advanced telecommunication services. However, a new paradigm is gaining momentum in the context of an electronic marketplace, referred to as "Intelligent Agents". In particular "Mobile Agents", representing a subset of intelligent agents, provide new capabilities for distributed service environments. This paper addresses the potential impacts of mobile agents on the IN concept with particular emphasis on mobile agent-based service provision.